Electro-acoustic speakers are used to generate sound, such as music or voice to a listener or listeners. Often, it is desirable for only a single person or a limited number of people to be capable of hearing a sound source so that others in nearby areas are not disturbed. This is useful if separate audiences located near each other are listening to more than one sound source such as when evaluating musical recordings for purchase in a music store, or listening to a display at a museum.
A common solution to this problem is to provide a single listener with headphones or multiple listeners with a listening booth. Headphones provide an isolated acoustic environment in which one can privately listen to a pure stereo sound source. Pure stereo sound provides sound from a right channel to the right ear and sound from a left channel to the left ear. A drawback with headphones is that the listener is inconvenienced with having to wear a headphone set.
Listening booths are typically an isolated room with stereo speakers which provides an isolated listening environment for one or more listeners. The drawback of listening booths is that the listening booth is completely isolated from surrounding regions by the walls of the listening booth. Additionally, the sound heard from stereo speakers in a listening booth is not pure stereo. Sound from both the right and left speakers or channels is heard by both the right and left ears.